Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Mental Health Research / 20.03.2023
Going to Sporting Events Boosts Mental and Physical Health
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
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Dr. Keyes[/caption]
Dr Helen Keyes PhD, AFBPsS, SFHEA
Head of School Psychology & Sport Science
Anglia Ruskin University
Cambridge
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What types of sporting events?
Response: The data were collected as part of a large government study looking at a range of measures on health and activities across the UK population. Our study honed in on aspects of wellbeing – life satisfaction, loneliness, happiness, anxiety, a sense that life is worthwhile – as well as whether participants had attended a live sporting event in the last year. The data collected did not differentiate between different types of sport – the positive effects that we report for wellbeing are population-wide across a whole range of sports, from attending a local football match all the way up to elite sporting events.
Dr. Keyes[/caption]
Dr Helen Keyes PhD, AFBPsS, SFHEA
Head of School Psychology & Sport Science
Anglia Ruskin University
Cambridge
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What types of sporting events?
Response: The data were collected as part of a large government study looking at a range of measures on health and activities across the UK population. Our study honed in on aspects of wellbeing – life satisfaction, loneliness, happiness, anxiety, a sense that life is worthwhile – as well as whether participants had attended a live sporting event in the last year. The data collected did not differentiate between different types of sport – the positive effects that we report for wellbeing are population-wide across a whole range of sports, from attending a local football match all the way up to elite sporting events.
Dr. Stern[/caption]
Robert A. Stern, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy & Neurobiology
Director of Clinical Research, BU CTE Center
Senior Investigator, BU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Boston University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The link between playing American football at the professional level and later-life brain disorders like chronic traumatic encephalopathy – or CTE -- and ALS has received increasing attention over the past 15 years. Previous research has shown that former NFL players are more likely to die from CTE and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and more likely to report cognitive impairment, behavioral changes, and dementia during life. Despite previous research focusing on the later-life effects of playing American football at the professional level, the long-term effects of college football participation remain largely unknown.
We had two goals for this new investigation. The first was to conduct a survey of the current overall health status, including cognitive and other neurological disorders, of older former college American football players compared with men in the general population. The second goal was to examine the mortality rate and causes of death in a cohort of older former college football players. The target population for this study was all 447 former Notre Dame football players who were listed as seniors on the varsity rosters during the 1964-1980 seasons. This was the era of legendary coaches Ara Parseghian and Dan Devine. I should add that this study was fully independent of the University of Notre Dame.
Sean C. Rose, MD
Child Neurology
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
The Ohio State University, Columbus
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There is conflicting evidence regarding the association between repetitive head impacts during youth contact sports and worse neurocognitive outcomes. Most research has been conducted in older adults, while the research in children is mostly limited to 1-2 sports seasons.
Prof. Stewart[/caption]
Willie Stewart, MBChB, PhD, DipFMS, FRCPath, FRCP Edin
Consultant Neuropathologist
Honorary Professor
Department of Neuropathology
Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
Glasgow, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There is concern over the association between participation in contact sports and later life risk of dementia and associated neurodegenerative disease. Much of this comes from observations of a specific form of neurodegenerative pathology - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)- linked to history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and repetitive head impacts in autopsy studies of relatively small numbers of former athletes, including boxers and soccer players. Nevertheless, although this brain injury linked pathology is described, surprisingly little is known about what this might mean for later life health, specifically risk of dementia.
In a previous study published from our programme of research looking at "Football's Influence on Lifelong health and Dementia risk' (the FIELD Study), we demonstrated that former professional soccer players had an approximately three-and-a-half-fold higher mortality from neurodegenerative disease than matched general population controls. However, these mortality data did not allow us to consider the relationships between varying head injury/impact exposure variables, such as player position and career length, and risk of neurodegenerative disease. 
Dr. Weisskopf[/caption]
Marc Weisskopf, PhD, ScD
Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology
Departments of Environmental Health and Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: There is a long history of health disparities by race. We were interested to see whether these also show up in professional football players, with the thought that perhaps the advantages that come with being an elite athlete in a sport (e.g. related to income, potential access to carte, prestige) might minimize health disparities.
Dr. Phelan[/caption]
Dermot Phelan, MD, PhD
Director of the Sports Cardiology Center
Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: It is well recognized that long-term elite endurance athletes are at higher risk of atrial fibrillation. We wished to evaluate whether this held true for primarily strength-type athletes. We had the opportunity to screen almost 500 former NFL athletes. It became clear that we were seeing more atrial fibrillation than one would expect during the screenings.
Sean C. Rose, MD
Pediatric sports neurologist and co-director
Complex Concussion Clinic
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Assistant professor of Pediatrics
The Ohio State University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The link between sub-concussive head impacts and declines in neurocognitive function has been reported by some studies, yet refuted by others. There is very little evidence that has been collected in children as they are sustaining these head impacts.
We initiated a multi-year study of youth football players to provide a more in-depth look at the question. We measured head impacts using helmet sensors during the 2016 football season. 112 players age 9-18 completed a battery of neurocognitive tests before and after the football season.
We found that neither the total burden of head impacts nor the intensity of individual impacts were associated with changes in testing performance from pre to post-season.
